Knight
by sbj
Summary: Maybe Princess is just aptly named. Bubbles/Princess, or working towards it. Love the dynamic of these two. Written for busterella on Livejournal. Un-beta'd.


**Title:** Knight  
**Pairing:** Bubbles/Princess (working towards it, anyway)  
**Rating:** G/K  
**Disclaimer:** Not my characters, just my words.  
**Summary:** Maybe Princess is just aptly named.  
**Notes:** Still working through the backlog of Fic I Owe People. I think **busterella** won an impromptu "Name Those Pop Songs" contest I held unofficially, hence this. I really like the dynamic of this pairing Un-beta'd.

**Knight**_  
-sbj_

Princess has been at the edge of the school playground screaming about the splinter for a solid ten minutes before Bubbles decides that she should be the one to do something about it.

"Don't bother," Blossom mutters as she pumps her swing. "She's faking. She's only doing it for the attention."

Buttercup says, "If you can get her to stop screaming, I'll give you a quarter."

"That's okay," Bubbles says as she flies away, towards the red-headed alarm clock going off. "Can I see, Princess?" she asks gently, hoping it will stave off the screaming. It only sort of works.

"About time!" Princess shrieks, and Bubbles winces. "Aren't you a Powerpuff Girl? Aren't you supposed to _help_ people?"

"Last time you called us for help, you tried to destroy us." Bubbles reaches for Princess' hand, but Princess is too busy waving it around in indignation.

"So? So you're just gonna stop answering cries for help from people who obviously _need_ it?" Princess scoffs. "Some heroes _you_ are."

"_I can hear you from over here, Princess_!" Blossom barks.

Bubbles manages to snare one of Princess' wrists, but then the girl jerks it back.

"_Ow_!" she shouts in Bubbles' face. "_That hurts_!"

Bubbles lights up briefly. "This is just like in Beauty and the Beast!"

Princess just looks at her like she's crazy. Bubbles thinks back to what Blossom said, that Princess is probably faking, but even so, Bubbles is never good at ignoring cries for help until she's sure.

"I'm sorry," Bubbles says. "I won't be so rough."

Princess rolls her eyes and extends her hand daintily, her nose in the air. Bubbles takes it as gently as she can and rotates it, palm up.

"Didn't Ms. Keane come and help?" she asks, her pupils dilating as she seeks out the splinter with super-vision.

"Ugh! Totally useless! All she did was have me wash my hands. She did absolutely _nothing_ to get this stupid thing out of me."

"Washing your hands will stop it from getting infected," Bubbles says sagely, parroting a wisdom the Professor taught her.

"I would've _preferred_ it out."

"She was only trying to help," Bubbles offers. Man, this thing is _impossible_ to find. Maybe she _is_ faking.

"Well, _she wasn't very good at it, was she_?" Princess shouts towards the adult on the other end of the playground. The woman ignores her. For all that she tries to get people's attention, Princess seems to be better at getting them to do the exact opposite.

"I don't see it, Princess," Bubbles says, a little disappointed to find that her sister was right.

"_What_? How can you not see it? It's _right there_!"

"I don't see anything." Bubbles turns Princess' prim, manicured hand over. A manicure on a five-year-old's hand looks kinda silly, but she does like the shininess of Princess' nails and how smooth her hands feel.

Princess groans and pulls out of Bubbles' grip. She points a single finger in Bubbles' face.

"_There_."

Even with her heightened senses Bubbles has to squint to see it. It's a tiny sliver of wood, near microscopic, even. She wants to ask Princess if she can really feel it, but then she remembers that fairy tale about the princess who could feel a pea under seventeen mattresses and how when the family asked her how she slept instead of being polite she was honest instead, and maybe that's how it is with Princess. Maybe it's not really about the attention after all, but being honest about the things she wants and the things that hurt her.

"I see it."

Bubbles reclaims Princess' hand and hopes she doesn't ruin that soft skin. She knows Princess will probably protest if she tells her what she's going to do, so she just clamps her mouth shut while her eyes power up.

Princess is suspicious. "What are you—"

The tiny track of blue light flashes only for a second. Bubbles watches as her eyebeam disintegrates the splinter. She exhales, relieved to find Princess' hand back in pristine condition.

Princess is of dissimilar inclinations.

"_Owwwwwwwwwwwww_! What are you _doing_? You _maniac_! I'm telling my Daddy on you and how you tried to _murder_ me with your stupid powers—"

"I'm sorry," Bubbles says, even though she knows she did the right thing.

"What is this? I ask you for help and you try to _kill_ me? That's not heroic! You're _crazy_!" Princess screams, and a tiny part of Bubbles thinks she actually might be because of what she's about to say, but she's five, so the rest of her doesn't really care.

"What do you want to play?" she asks Princess, stunning her into silence. She looks over at the playground and points. "Nobody's on the jungle gym."

Princess blinks, then huffs. "Jungle gyms are _filthy_."

"Oh." Bubbles looks some more. "What about the slide?"

"The whole _playground_ is gross," Princess elaborates, and she's such a snob, but Bubbles knows that's just how real princesses are—honest.

"Yeah, you're right," Bubbles says. "It's got boys on it." She looks around, back inside the classroom. "There's a house."

Princess follows her gaze and doesn't seem too thrilled with the prospect, but at least she appears to be considering it.

"Fine," the redhead sniffs in resignation, and heads for it. "It's not in the dirt, anyway."

Bubbles giggles and floats in after her. Princess is already inside, pulling the little plastic door shut.

"You can't come inside!" Princess tells her. "You're the hero and you have to rescue me from the bad guy's castle!"

"Okay."

"He wants to marry me because I'm super rich and he wants all my money!"

"Okay."

"There's a dragon outside!"

"O—"

"And a moat! With _crocodiles_! He's a wizard! A bad one! And he's old and gross and I don't like him at all!"

Bubbles waits to see if there's more.

"_Are you coming or what_?"

"Oh!" Bubbles thinks about what a hero faced with an evil wizard's castle with a dragon and a crocodile moat who wants to marry the princess would do. She doesn't usually get to play a knight in shining armor. It's pretty exciting; she likes it.

"Don't worry, Princess!" she cries in her best heroic voice, her hand on her imaginary sword. "I'll save you!"

From inside, Princess scoffs.

"About time."

_-fin-_


End file.
